Neighbors had come out into the dark to pull a scooter rider from the roadside bushes, and they were still standing on the road when the 18-wheeler came around the bend.
A speeding 18-wheel trailer truck ran over a group of people standing on the Karra-Torpa main road in Khunti district, Jharkhand, India, on Thursday night, Nov. 5, 2026, killing at least seven people and injuring one, police said Friday, Nov. 6.
Six of the victims died at the scene, and the seventh died during treatment. Police said the dead were three women, three children and one man. Khunti Superintendent of Police Rishabh Garg said the truck was traveling from the Torpa side and went over the crowd while negotiating a sharp turn.
Out to Free a Fallen Rider
Around 9:30 p.m., a scooter went off the road and into the bushes on the shoulder near Jone-Ludru Morh, on the Karra-Torpa stretch, eyewitnesses said. Residents of a nearby colony and passers-by came out after hearing the noise. Some of them worked to pull the rider free, while women and children stood at the edge of the road, watching.
The driver of the 18-wheeler, approaching from the Torpa side, emerged from the dark and lost control. The truck hit the people standing on the shoulder, broke through a culvert and went into a ditch on the stretch running toward Karra Railway Station.
Birsa Nayak, a resident of Karra, lost three relatives — his wife, Kasila Devi; his daughter Anjali; and his one-year-old grandchild, Saurabh. Khushboo, another daughter, suffered serious injuries and remains at Khunti Sadar Hospital, her father said.
A second family lost four members. A laborer working in Gujarat, Rajesh lost his wife, Fagan Sanga; his mother, Karmi Lohrain; and his two daughters, Subhani Kumari and Soni Kumari. Word of the accident reached him afterward, hundreds of miles from the road where it happened.
Raids to Find Driver and Cleaner
The driver and his cleaner abandoned the trailer at the site and both fled. Police teams are carrying out raids to arrest the two. The vehicle was seized by officers, who sent the bodies for post-mortem examination.
Darkness and the sharp bend explain why the driver did not see the people on the road, according to preliminary information cited by investigators. “The driver might not have seen the crowd due to darkness,” Garg said.
Raju Kumar, the Karra police station in-charge, reached the spot soon after the first information came in, accompanied by police personnel and health workers from the community health center in Karra. Staff at that health center treated the injured child first, then referred the patient to Khunti Sadar Hospital after doctors found the child’s condition critical. Garg visited the hospital late at night to check on the injured.
A Prayer to Marang Buru
Families who lost relatives in Khunti received condolences from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who also prayed for the injured to recover quickly. His office posted the message on X on Nov. 6. President Droupadi Murmu also offered condolences, and angry residents blocked the road after the crash.
Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren said he was deeply saddened by the news of seven deaths in the road accident in Karra, and he extended condolences to every grieving family. “May Marang Buru grant peace to the souls of the departed,” he wrote.
Police are still working to establish the full circumstances of the crash.
Deadly Roads in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh
In a separate case, police said seven lives were lost in two separate road accidents in the Saurashtra region of Gujarat, reported Dec. 17, 2025. A speeding truck crushed four pedestrians near Maliya Miyana in Morbi district, all of them residents of Diodar, in Banaskantha district, who were on a pilgrimage to Dwarka; all four died on the spot. Shortly after midnight near Hadala village, a car carrying four friends from Junagadh hit a roadside tree and overturned near Bagasara, in Amreli district, killing three and seriously injuring one.
In another case, at least two people died and more than 10 were injured in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, on Monday, Sept. 15, 2025, when a speeding truck ran over several people on aerodrome road, officers said. The vehicle also caught fire. Indore Zone 1 Deputy Commissioner of Police Krishna Lalchandani said the truck was carrying packing cartons and that nine people were hospitalized, three of them still serious. Police detained the driver.
